Saturday, January 15, 2011

This year was pretty rough for films. Practically nothing of note was released before the late spring and then every hyped blockbuster disappointed terribly. There are theories that we're still suffering from the aftershocks of the 2007-2008 writers' strike, with a lack of quality scripts in the queue, but that would suggest that more than a handful of the good films in a year come through the Hollywood system. In fact, as the waves of 3D Burger King tie-ins floated out of the theaters like the tissue-thin fluff that they were, a pretty solid line-up of indie dramas and foreign imports began to show. 2011 was slow to start, but ended up accumulating a respectable roster of worthwhile movies.

Films I Wanted To See For Consideration But Didn't:
Life During Wartime
Blue Valentine
The King's Speech
Another Year
Tiny Furniture
Surviving Life (Theory and Practice)

These, the worst films of 2010, are based a little on dashed expectations, but mostly on how angry they made me. I saw more amateurish films this year, but these are films that insulted me, ruined my week, & pissed all over my love of movies.The Worst Films Of 2010:5. The Experiment (a terrible film based on the Stanford prison experiment as understood by the sympathetically-dimwitted jock)4. Saw 3D (I'm pretty sure that the producers of this series have completely lost the thread of their obtusely complicated mythology & the only people still onboard are those of us pigheadedly searching for resolution)3. Alice In Wonderland (Mindnumbingly busy take on an already silly & nonsensical story, but also manages to be duller than Revolutionary Road)2. The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson's wrongheaded attempt at a cathartic heart-tugging story about coming to terms with loss that ends up blaming the victim instead)1. Green Zone (Some geniuses in Hollywood figured out that we were lied into war in Iraq and they can't wait to tell the unwashed masses all about it, 6 years later. They think we're all idiots too, so they've couched it in a Rambo story where America's beefcake Matt Damon singlehandedly takes on Saddam's forces & Bush's stooges too.)

I saw a lot of films this year. During those cold, desperate months at the beginning, I was willing to pretty much watch anything that could boast stuff wiggling about on the screen. As the year progressed, I got a little more discerning, but I was always willing to give most films a chance to surprise me. So in a decidedly threadbare year, I saw 112 films. Judging my top 25 films, I only really feel secure about my top 2 or 3, the others simply jockied against each other, at the mercy of my fickle moods. Did I like the surprisingly involving backstory of our narcissistic cyber-infantalism in Social Network more than the lighthearted camp of The A-Team? Was the beautiful cinematography of Monsters enough to place it above the incredulous Splice? So while these are ranked, take it all with a grain of salt. Just know that I found something worth taking away from the top 25 and, if you had disregarded them out of hand, maybe give them a second look.

The Best Movies Of 2010: 25. Splice24. Toy Story 323. 127 Hours22. Four Lions21. Social Network20. The Fighter19. Easy A18. Cyrus17. A Prophet16. Repo Men15. The Crazies14. I Saw The Devil13. Dogtooth12. REC 211. Restrepo10. Machete09. True Grit08. Never Let Me Go07. Mic Macs06. How To Train Your Dragon05. Winter's Bone04. Mother03. Enter The Void02. Animal Kingdom01. Exit Through The Gift Shop (I was a fan of Banksy before this film, and so i was eagerly awaiting it when it was just being solicited as a straightforward documentary about the man of mystery. As with most Banksy endeavors, it manages to deceptively be so much more. It's 3 great films adeptly folded into one. It's an involving introduction to the world of street art; it's a compelling biography of an eccentric man; and it's a rich and spirited, open dialogue about the nature of capital-A Art. To tie it all together, there is the wonderfully wry question of the substantiality of the whole affair. I ranked this film #1 early in the year, and reconfirmed its place with several more viewings. The highest recommendation.)